Admission: £25 (South lower), £33 (South East) and £55 (West).
Programme:
An official edition is in existence but not sold, apparently
because it was printed before the Brugge coach was sacked and included
his comments.

Attendance:
Officially 18,003 in a 29,000 capacity
stadium - and 6,000 less than had been at the previous Sunday's home
defeat to Zulte Waregem. It's always an inexact science, but working
out where 11,000 empty seats were wasn't easy.

Bizarrely, there actually more fans here for Brugge's Europa League
qualifier against Hungarian side Debrecen back in August, while just
over 13,000 bothered to appear for the visit of Maritimo.

The town:

With advance parties starting to arrive from Tuesday, the bulk of the
estimated 5,000 Newcastle supporters gathered in the Market Square
from late morning, with the Brugge police and civic authorities
establishing a fan zone in that location. This included temporary
bars, catering concessions, toilets, big screens and a caravan selling
Club Brugge merchandise.

Policing was low-key in the main - with no alcohol restrictions save
for an insistence on plastic glasses and cans outside - and the mood
during the day remained positive.

A
higher density gathering took place in an adjacent square, while the
many bars and restaurants in the city did good business from Mags who
preferred to stay slightly off the beaten track.

With
the stadium located around three miles out of the centre in the
Western suburbs of Brussels, fans began to make their own way several
hours before kickoff, by bus, taxi and on foot - although some evasive
action was required by the latter to avoid police efforts to corral
fans in another city centre square before marching them en masse up
the ground, accompanied by police horses etc.

Those without tickets (and some locals) meanwhile either stayed in the
square to watch the match on the big screen, or found a bar with a TV
(our tie was on Belgian terrestrial telly). After some breaks in
transmission though and a few incidents of (full) beer cans being
thrown, numbers in the square dropped as people looked for
alternatives.

Those without
tickets (and some locals) meanwhile either stayed in the square to
watch the match on the big screen, or found a bar with a TV (our tie
was on Belgian terrestial telly). After some breaks in transmission
though and a few incidents of (full) beer cans being thrown, numbers
in the square dropped as people looked for
alternatives.

The ground:

Newcastle were allocated 2,600 tickets for the tie (initially 1,470
for public sale and 320 for club use) and these were split into three
sections: the bulk in the South East Corner, the later and cheaper
allocation in front of home fans in the lowest part of the South Stand
and a section in the Southernmost part of the West Stand, separated
from home fans by a line of stewards.

Matchday rumours of a further sale of tickets to away supporters were
false, but an unspecified number of fans were able to acquire home end
tickets earlier from a variety of sources and that pushed the numbers
up towards the 3,000 mark.

Upon entering the stadium and seeing the sections of sparsely
populated seats, United's fans inevitably broke into a chant of,"We could have sold
all your tickets".

And finally, a view from the home end
taken by infiltrating toon fan Liam R:

NUFC later released the following statement:

Newcastle United today thanked their army of travelling
supporters for their exemplary behaviour and support whilst in Belgium
for last night's Europa League fixture against Club Brugge.

Over 5,000 fans made the short trip to Belgium with around half in the
stadium and the other half watching the match in bars and on the big
screen in the city centre.

The vast majority of supporters were extremely well behaved, acting as
excellent ambassadors for the Club and contributing to a great day in
Bruges before, during and after the game. Supporters who weren't able
to gain access to the stadium were understandably frustrated to see so
many empty seats on the televised coverage and yet remained in good
spirits in the city centre.

It was disappointing that supporters who had a ticket for the game had
to endure a longer than expected escorted walk to the stadium but,
despite that, their behaviour throughout was admirable.

Newcastle United manager Alan
Pardew said:

"Our fans respected the people and city of Bruges and helped
contribute to a great atmosphere in and around the city as well as
inside the stadium and we thank them for that.
"The support our Club receives day in, day out, wherever we play,
is absolutely magnificent and gives the players a massive lift. That
cannot be underestimated and without doubt they are a huge credit to
the Club and to the city of Newcastle."

PS: The most
serious incident reported involving Newcastle followers was a stabbing
in Brussels on the night before the game. The injury received was
serious enough for the lad to be hospitalised, but not on the critical
list.

Two fans were arrested for drink-related offences in Brugge, which is
fairly remarkable, given that local bars sold eminently drinkable
draughts of 10% ABV - twice the strength of Stella.

And it really was a case of "shoes off if you love the toon"
for some, as the exotic brews they sampled were only dispensed to them
in bespoke glasses in exchange for leaving one of their size 10s
behind the bar as a deposit....

Goals

14 mins There
were shades of Enrique and Suarez last Sunday, as a searching forward pass from
the recalled Ryan Donk found Ivan Trickovski pelting downfield and the
Macedonian midfielder took a touch in the box that cut out Coloccini before
tucking the ball past goalkeeper Tim Krul 0-1

19 mins Maxime Lestienne's speculative centre from the left was headed clear
by James Tavernier but dropped only as far as Jesper Jørgensen. The Dane took a
couple of touches as Bigirimana attempted to block him and was able to get away
a low-right footed effort from around 22 yards that Krul disappointingly failed
to reach as it bobbled past him into the net 0-2

41 mins
Sylvain Marveaux dug out a deep cross from the left wing that dropped in
the box and saw Gabriel Obertan jump but fail to make contact with an attempted
header. His marker Tom Hogli did make contact and headed it out of his area into
the path of Vurnon Anita.

The Newcastle midfielder registered his first goal for the club with a crisp
first-time volley that flew past Bojan Jorgacevic to halve the deficit 1-2

43 mins
Goalscorer Anita was the inspiration for United's equaliser with a
cross-field pass out the left where James Tavernier overlapping. The rookie
defender killed the ball with a touch before knocking it infield and into the
path of the advancing Sammy Ameobi.

He wriggled away from his marker and slipped a pass out to Shola Ameobi and
his elder brother managed to beat the home 'keeper at his near post by toe
poking the ball home from around eight yards with his right foot 2-2

Half time: Brugge 2 Newcastle 2
Full time: Brugge 2 Newcastle 2

We
Said

Alan Pardew said:

"We are going to have to kick ourselves if we don't beat Maritimo at
home, with all due respect to them. We have got ourselves in a great
position and are looking to just wrap the league up perhaps with that win
there, which is our next game.

"We knew the game was still there for us - they did not have much
possession, so we knew we could get at them. We were confident we could get
back in the game.

"Vurnon scored a fantastic goal. That gave us a lift, and to pop
up and score the equaliser before half-time was a bonus. It was
fantastic.

The second half was anybody’s game. Both sides wanted to win it - we
didn’t get the win, but we will take the point.

About Shola and Sammy:

"I thought they were both good tonight. We had Ameobi to Ameobi -
which is almost like a song - for the second goal, which was nice.

"It was a great little turn from Sammy. He has just got this way of
getting out of corners that I have not seen many players being able to get
out of. He wriggles out of situations.

"He still needs to tighten up a little bit on the tactical and
intelligence sides of the game. He takes people on where perhaps he should
pass, but he will learn that. He showed his talent tonight - and he marks at
set-plays, which he needs to do. He's 6'5". He's not very good at it,
but he's learning."

They
Said

Making his managerial debut, Philippe Clement
(who replaced Georges Leekens earlier in the week and played for Coventry City
in a 4-1 defeat at SJP in February 1999) commented:

“The way in which we played should boost this team. I also
reckon our fans enjoyed the game: lots of willingness to fight, many chances,
you name it. It was hard to take two goals just before half time, but the
players reacted well after the interval.

"The tie could have gone either way, but the biggest winners today are the
fans. It's clear that there is a basis we can start from. The players have
picked up on many things in a very short time, they also showed a lot of
goodwill, albeit that I never had my doubts in that respect.

"This game showed that when you play en bloc it's much easier to play and
earn good results. This Club can still have a great season; the vital thing for
me is the way in which the team reacted.

You can also feel the chemistry between players and fans. When you feel the
energy rolling off the stands, it's very satisfying.The players should take a
lot of confidence out of this game towards the next one.

"It's also positive that the heads didn't go down after that double setback
just before half-time. They stuck to the plan after the break and didn't go
looking for solutions all on their own.

"It was great fun (to be the coach), but sometimes I had to keep
myself from running on that pitch myself!”

Stats

United in Europe (not including
penalty shootouts):

Played: 126 Won: 72 Drawn: 25 Lost: 29 For: 216 Against:122
Shola and Sammy Ameobi both started - the
first time that brothers have done so in a senior competitive fixture
for the Magpies since the Robledos back in 1952 (excluding the 1992
Anglo-Italian Cup appearances of the Applebys and non-competitive
outings for the Caldwells).

Vurnon Anita scored his first Newcastle goal and in doing so, became the 60th Magpie to have scored
for us in Europe (not counting OGs). He'd failed to find the net
in 15 previous Champions League and Europa League ties for Ajax plus
two for Newcastle and last scored in a Dutch League game for Ajax
against Heracles back in April.

Mike Williamson marked his 29th birthday with his 85th NUFC
appearance. He's started five of our six Europa League games this
season - Gabriel Obertan is the only player to have started all six,
while Gael Bigirimana is the only other player to have featured in
them all, starting five and appearing off the bench in one).

Our record 426 minute European shutout record was extended to 440
minutes.

Goal number 74 for Shola was his second of the season, both of
which have come in this competition.

It's no away win in ten games in all competitions for Newcastle
now, since that
memorable 2-0 success at Stamford Bridge back in May. United are
now unbeaten in all six gameswhere they've worn the lime
change strip
(three
wins, three
draws)

This is the fifth time this season in all competitions
that Newcastle have gone behind but recovered to force a draw (Atromitos
away, Aston Villa home, Everton away and Reading away being the
others, when in all cases we were one goal down - not two as was the
case here.)

The predicted return of Xisco to first team action didn't
happen, but our Spanish superstar did make the squad for Brugge before
failing to be selected among the matchday 18.

Thanks to ESPN commentator, Jon Champion, who gave NUFC.com
an unexpected name-check on air during the second half. In a quiet moment, he mentioned to
"expert summariser", Chris Waddle, that he had spotted in
our OTDIH section that he'd for our reserves way back in 1980.

Memory man Waddle - while not sharing his pearls of wisdom about
pelanties (sic) - recalled the "11,000" who saw
the stiffs at SJP while the first team played in front of "4,000
at Cambridge".

Errr, not quite. There were 5,684 at the Abbey Stadium while
4,200 watched the 19-year old score the winner against Liverpool's
second string at Gallowgate. Still, like his unique language-mangling match summaries, ex-mackem Waddle wasn't
letting facts get in the way of his ramblings....

Waffle

After the low-key expeditionary forces that were dispatched to Greece and
Madeira, Newcastle's third Europe League away tie of the season saw hordes of
fans descend on Belgium, turning this particular corner of a foreign field into
an inebriated but good-natured black and white base camp.

An abundance of affordable travel options and impatience of United fans to
sample the unique atmosphere of watching their team overseas meant that only
half of the 5,000+ who made the journey actually got tickets for the game, but
that failed to detract from what many European first-timers reported as their
best-ever away day following the toon.

To misquote the terrace chant, Brugge wasn't a sh*thole and they didn't
wanna go home, with some taking most of the week to get there and back by land,
air and sea from as far away as Australia and the USA and intending to party for
as long as they - or their wallets - allowed.

For those with experience of previous European campaigns, the game or the trip
may not have quite touched the heights of Antwerp, Bilbao, Rotterdam or Milan,
but was still a welcome reminder of just how great these experiences are - when
neither set of fans or the authorities tarnish the occasion, save for the
ludicrous and illogical decision to leave thousands of seats unsold in the
stadium.

Of course the antics of some of Tyneside's cultural attaches were a little too
much for the locals to comprehend, but mostly fell into the amusing rather than
objectionable category, with the presence of far right sympathisers failing to
sour proceedings any more than occasional "no surrender" chants.

Reports from several locals of Birmingham City's visit here last year told of
policing problems including shoplifting, but most of the issues faced by the
tourists whose visit to this World Heritage site clashed with our arrival were
of how to take photos of the historic buildings without flags from the likes of
"Rothbury Mags" intruding on them. The water cannon was there, but
never needed.

To the game then and in classic style, United served up a dire opening to the
tie which saw them deservedly fall two goals behind within twenty minutes and
look in a state of panic every time the home side pumped the ball over the top
of our defence.

That was despite the unexpected presence of both Fabricio Coloccini and Cheick
Tiote, who were drafted in to start after incurring domestic bans for recent red
cards. However United clicked into action before the break and French duo
Gabriel Obertan and Sylvain Marveaux both missed good chances to score before
Anita launched the comeback in some style.

A collective effort from the Ameobis then restored parity before half time, as
Brugge reverted to the nervous state that saw them incur four successive league
defeats and sack their coach. However the Belgians then deviated from the script
and there was to be no second half collapse, substitute Tchite, Bacca and
Odjidja all testing Krul as the home fans found their voices
again.

Steven Taylor was lucky to get away with a shirt pull in the box on Bacca late
on, but a
home win would have been harsh on a Magpies side who had deserved at least a point
after their comeback.

As a consequence of Bordeaux's 1-0 win over Maritimo meanwhile, Alan Pardew's
side can now ensure qualification
for the knockout stages of the competition by beating the Madeira minnow on
Tyneside in two weeks time.

That would leave just the away game in France early next month, before
hostilities resume in mid February. And at that point, the partners of some
Newcastle fans could just find themselves whisked off on an unexpected romantic
"Valentine's Day break" - drinking in some town square.

PS: There's just time to include Mark Bowie's own contribution to
proceedings: